57 The Last Portal

Chapter 57 The Last Portal As luck would have it,' said Nerys as she crawled beneath the low branches to the door, 'I'd already done a lot of work to make sure your father would not get his hands on the pencil, even though I didn't yet know that the pencil existed. 'What do you mean?' asked Peanut. 'Long before you arrived in Chroma, I was aware that the Resistance were trying to break Gary out of the Spire. So I decided to take matters into my own hands. I ordered my most trusted RAZER, 67, to pretend to go rogue and join the Resistance. Together, we decided that 67 would break your father out of jail and lead him to one of the disused cleaning stations in Modernia. That way, Gary would think he was free,

but really, we would know exactly where he was at all times. It was perfect. 'PERFECTLY EVIL!' shouted Gary, from the hatch. Peanut's eyes widened as Nerys turned the pencil around and started rubbing out the Green Valleys portal. She took a deep breath and tried to compose herself. She didn't want to give Nerys the satisfaction of knowing how frightened she was. Once that portal was erased, there was no way for her and her family to ever get back home. Not without Little Tail, at least. She decided to try to keep Nerys talking. 'So if you already knew where he was,' said Peanut, 'why did you ask me about him on that video call?' 'It's called subterfuge, lovely,' Nerys sneered. Deception. Trickery. You should try it sometime. Anyway, when I found out that the pencil was real, the need to keep Gary away from it suddenly became my main priority. When I eventually got my hands on it after I stole it from you on the snowfields of the North Draw, I began to execute a new plan. The first part of this plan was to make you think that you knew Mr White's secret identity. I couldn't risk you guessing that he was actually me. So, I bought another hat just like mine for Mr Stone and convinced him to wear it whenever possible. It worked like a dream. I believe he turned up at your house wearing it that very evening.

Peanut swallowed. She had to admit that she had been well and truly played by Nerys. 'The next part of the plan was to start erasing the existing portals, one by one. And it was going perfectly until you stole the pencil back from me.' She turned to face Peanut. 'That was very naughty of you, young lady.' 'Sorry not sorry,' she said as Nerys continued to rub out the Green Valleys portal. Peanut turned to look back into the control room. She noticed that Alan was secretly scrabbling around on the floor, pulling at something. What was he up to now? Could he possibly be trying to open the hatch and free Leo, Doodle and her parents? That's certainly what it looked like he was doing. Anyway, I realised that if I wanted to get the pencil back, I would have to exploit your biggest weakness. And what might that be?' asked Peanut, trying to buy a bit more time for whatever it was that Alan was up to. 'Why, your biggest weakness is love, of course,' said Nerys. 'I knew you wouldn't be able to resist coming to your mother's rescue if you thought Mr White had taken her hostage. That's why I persuaded Mr Stone to change the ballet reservations and take her to Milan instead of London. I knew you'd come after her. And, because I'd already made you think that Stone was White, I knew that you would try to take him, well, us, back to Chroma too. The whole aim,

right from the moment you stole back the pencil, was to get you to give it back to me. Ideally when we were in Chroma. And that's exactly what you did when we were "trapped" in the Rainbow Lake.' Nerys finished rubbing out the door. Then she turned to face Peanut and smiled. Peanut gulped. 'So, you see, lovely, everything happened this way because I engineered it. It was all designed and directed by my hand. You must admit, I am something of a genius, am I not?'

'I'll admit no such thing,' said Peanut, straining against the RAZER's gripping arms. 'So now that you've destroyed all of the portals and you've got the pencil, what do you plan to do with it?' 'Well, that's easy,' replied Nerys, smiling. 'I'm going to do what I should have done the last time I had it in my hands.' 'And what's that?' asked Peanut. Nerys held Little Tail up in front of her face. 'I'm going to destroy it.